Monday’s Beacon performance was everything a rock show should be – Reed’s lyrics fed the head, while he and his three-man backup band worked the songs to musical climax at every opportunity.

Supporting his fine new album “Ecstasy,” Reed was pure confidence and attitude in a black T-shirt and leather pants.

When he wasn’t strumming his electric guitar, he’d touch his heart, clench a fist and even point to his noggin in an array of hand jive that made you believe in the words he delivered.

Like the “Ecstasy” album, this two-hour show opened with the song “Paranoia Key of E.”

At first, Reed’s wooden stage presence is jarring, he stands cooking under the spotlight like the Tinman in need of an oiling.

Stiffness is Lou Reed – so what?

Yet after the house stomped, cheered and whistled for him to play his third encore he finally loosened like a tightly wound pitcher who’s just thrown a perfect game. He then allowed himself a satisfied grin in the triumph of the moment.

Between the beginning and that end, Reed sent the audience reeling on more than one occasion. Some who were at the show will insist the best song was the ancient “Sweet Jane,” the tune that finally unglued the fans’ from their seats.

It was very good, but the very twisted new song “Rock Minuet” was the night’s real show-stopper.

The band launched the tune in a discordant wreck of melody that eventually peeled away to a smooth interior where Reed and his longtime associate, bassist Fernando Saunders, worked the urban blues in a guitar/electric cello duet.

It isn’t a lovable song. It is dark as it describes an underworld populated by freaks who believe they are the normal ones.

For a literary point of reference think of Hubert Selby Jr.’s “Last Exit to Brooklyn.”

For a musical reference, think of the Doors’ powerful calm-to-storm orgasm, “The End.”

This concert was important because it truly illustrated how daring a performer Reed is.

He’s willing to take risks on stage, and he’s also willing to crash. Sometimes, like on Monday, he defies gravity.